Research issues and agenda
Please note that this is an old page due for updating by June 2001. Although the information is not well presented by us, it nevertheless covers important issues (!)
WHO SETS THE AGENDA ON POVERTY RESEARCH ?
'If Africa is given the chance to set the agenda for research in the developed countries… a list of research agendas could be suggested that could occupy the research capacity of Europe for years', Kassu Yilafa, Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister speaking in March 1997.
'We in Bangladesh decide what we will research, who is going to do the work and how it will be organised. If all that is clear, we see whether there is a role for the North'. Syed Hashemi, Grameen Trust.
Learning generated in the South all too rarely surfaces on the desks of policy makers. While Southern institutes and researchers are sought out as collaborators, research agendas and programmes are largely driven from the North. Increasingly policy makers are looking for flexible ways of integrating research into programmes so that the benefits from learning can be applied during, not after, the event.
Dutch Policy on Research stresses the need for research projects to be demand-driven. 'Research questions and the research agenda should come from the South and the grassroots in the South should be involved in its definition.' This sets up a number of challenges. Research agendas will depend on which group defines them; different responses will come from policy makers, NGOs or researchers. But the Dutch have gone farther and set up systems to hear from people who may be primarily affected by the policy outcomes of research but who are not usually consulted. They argue for research which contributes to public discussion, which helps to solve problems and which gives foresight on what could be done.
Decentralising research - the agenda, the skills, the access to information - has the potential to make it a more useful development tool. At local level demands for research tend to be more concrete and end users can be defined more easily. A process led by authentic demand at national level is likely to be much more complex. Decentralisation also implies serious attention to building national capacity for research. Decentralised, demand-led research challenges researchers and institutes to adopt different approaches and in particular to become more participatory and more accessible. See Netherlands Supported Research Programmes for Development Newsletter No. 7, Fax: + 31 30 272 3388.
Guidelines for research with southern partners
The Swiss Commission for Research Partnership with Developing Countries (KFPE) aims to encourage the Swiss scientific community to value and support the building of research capacity in developing countries. KFPE has recently published Guidelines for Research in Partnership with Developing Countries, which incorporates 11 principles to be followed in research collaboration. Contact KFPE Secretariat Fax + 41 31 312 1678 email kfpe@sanw.unibe.ch web www.kfpe.unibe.ch
Poverty research in Bangladesh
The Grameen Programme for Research on Poverty Alleviation,
Bangladesh, was created to promote awareness and action for the elimination
of poverty and hunger. Current research includes: Poverty among fisherfolk;
studies on feminist Legal Strategy and on domestic violence between masters
and servants; the Bangladesh National Nutrition Survey for 1995-6; Changes
and Determinants of Urban poverty and Standards of Living in Dhaka city
and Urban Goverance and Poverty Alleviation; Developing a Credit Programme
for the Hard Core Poor; Developing a database of land records; Budget
analysis of development projects of the Ministry of Women Affairs.
It produces a newsletter, Grameen Poverty Research, which reports on research
findings and programmes and covers journals and periodicals on poverty
and development published in Bangladesh. Issue 4 (1) focussed on democratic
control at the local level in Bangladesh, with articles on women's political
participation and voice; and local justice for the poor. Fax: +880 2 806319.
Poverty
Research in Tanzania
Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) began operating
in Tanzania in 1995 with the broad aim of strengthening local poverty
research. The programme funds and administers research projects, assists
post-graduate trainee researchers, organises workshops and seminars to
review research proposals and disseminate results. It produces a twice-yearly
newsletter reporting on activities.
Recent reports from REPOA include:
Foreign Aid and Poverty Alleviation in Tanzania: the Hesawa Fiasco. Report
on Poverty Alleviation, Third Research Workshop
Poverty & the Environment: the Case of Informal Sand Mining, Quarrying
& Lime Making Activities in Dar es Salaam (97.1)
The Impact of Technology on Poverty Alleviation: the Case of Artisansal
Mining in Tanzania (97.2)
Educational Background, Training & their Influence on Female Operated
Informal Sector Enterprises (97.3)
The Role of Informal & Semi Formal Finance in Poverty Alleviation
in Tanzania (98.1)
Poverty & Diffusion of Technological Innovations to Rural Women: the
Role of Entrepreneurship (98.2)
REPOA Fax: +255 51 75738.
DI Update has a major focus on poverty research in India -
Part of the idea behind replacing AIDWATCH with Development Information
Update is to give much greater prominence to southern
research. In each edition of DI Update, policy researcher Maya
Pinto will be providing regular information on poverty research and action
undertaken in India. See Research
& action in India.
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